Perception of perspective angles

Abstract

We perceive perspective angles, that is, angles that have an orientation in depth, differently from what they are in physical space. Extreme examples are angles between rails of a railway line or between lane dividers of a long and straight road. In this study, subjects judged perspective angles between bars lying on the floor of the laboratory. Perspective angles were also estimated from pictures taken from the same point of view. Converging and diverging angles were judged to test three models of visual space. Four subjects evaluated the perspective angles by matching them to nonperspective angles, that is, angles between the legs of a compass oriented in the frontal plane. All subjects judged both converging and diverging angles larger than the physical angle and smaller than the angles in the proximal stimuli. A model of shallow visual space describes the results. According to the model, lines parallel to visual lines, vanishing at infinity in physical space, converge to visual lines in visual space. The perceived shape of perspective angles is incompatible with the perceived length and width of the bars. The results have significance for models of visual perception and practical implications for driving and flying in poor visibility conditions.